NFL 2024 Season - PS4
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Articles published multiple times per week, offering insights and picks on upcoming games.
 
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Super Bowl
Just Winning
Really Have Something
Obvious
Entertainment First
Pull the Rug
Bad Calls
Pick to Follow
Time to Buy
Conference Championships
Books Edge
Top-Flight QB Duel
Looking for a First
Cold Reality
Three and One
Divisional Playoffs
Winter Wonderland
Yes We Can
Getting Better
Three-Peat Begins
Correction
Challenge Accepted
Wild Card Weekend
Early Celebration
QB matchup
Starting and Ending Spots
Wild Card Trend
What to Like
Rookie Quarterbacks
Broken Fever
That's That
Week 18
Checking the Boxes
Needs and Wants
Four and Out
One or the Other
Point Spread Clouds
Fix It
Hollow Revenge
To Win or Not to Win
Week 17
All Knowing
Complicated Made Simple
Advanced Calculus
Glow Dimmed
Brink of Elimination
Game of Survival
Pleading for the Fifth
Need over Nothing
Christmas Grinch
Week 16
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers
Vintage 2018
Penix Debut
Dog Day
Playoff Position
Rest of the Story
Different Sundays
Run Some Tests
Without and With
Week 15
Two Tonight
Playoff Chances
Wild Card Challenge
Best of the Best
Next
Dire Straits
And It's Good
Bloated Lines
Week 14
Running up the Score
Challenge Me
Finding Reasons to Win
Crab Feed
Week Off
Good Enough
Buyers Regret
Pulled the Rug
Week 13
Mile High Hopes
Top and Bottom
Fourth Time the Charm
Bounce Back
Engage Spark
Line Up
Out in the Cold
Thanksgiving Visitors
Good Enough
Motivation on Steroids
Week 12
Second Best
Heavyweight Bout
QB's Ins and Outs
Everybody In
Too Easy
Walk the Plank
Hot to Trot
Try, Try, Try, Try, Try Again
Week 11
Mouse Trap
Must Game
Malfunction
Easy Does It
Old Foes
Falcons Fly into Mile High
Matter of Time
Improv
To the Brink
Week 10
Odd Man Out
Lions come Calling
Rookie versus Veteran
Call to Action
Full Reverse
When 8-0 is 4-4
Game of Contradictions
NFC West Bunch
Early Boarding
Week 9
Not Enough, Too Much
Real or Imposters
Groin Shot
Best Show
Saddle Up
Dull Edges
Telling Actions
Annihilation Formula
Week 8
No and No
Old Glory
Rookie Face Off
Adding it Up
Holding On
Jets Down
Unload and Reload
No Surprise
Career Paths
It Hurts
Week 7
Harbaugh Monday
Kids Camp
Barkley Back
Bird Battle
Mouse Time
Too Many?
Gone Shopping
Not Bad
40 for 3
Week 6
Try New
Night Vision
Trap Door
Looking Up
Wake Up Call
All Good Things
Bad Idea
Unexpected
Fire One
Week 5
Yes & Yes
Old Rivals
Rookie Sensation
So Close
Lunch in Seattle
Wake the Roosters
No Respect
Too Sweet
Turtle Flip
Week 4
Landmine
Bottoms Up
Winners and Losers
Call Me
Short Line
Reality Bites
Like Tonight
Uptick
Challenge Generates Performance
Week 3
Two Times
Reduced Value
Stars Down
The Other 21
Opportunity Knocks
Lots of Questions
Move Along People
Times Up
Week 2
Confidence Game
First and Second Picked QB's
Avoiding the Donut
Do or Die
One for the Road
Likewise
Adjustment Bureau
Down ... Not Out
Week 1
Time Marches On
Cashing the Trade
Start Here
Say What
Quick Up, Quick Down
Brazil Play Date
Top Two Open
Super Bowl Pick
Season Win Totals
Moving on Up
Breakout to Breakdown
Preseason 4
Preseason Wrap
Rookie Playoff Run
Preseason 3
Short Memory
Two In, One Up
Eagles Hunt
Winning Formula
Preseason 2
Quarterback Shuffle
One Two, or Two One
Starters Sit
Remote Control
Money be Damned
Preseason 1
One Season to the Next
Public Shift
Comets in the Night
Offseason
Mahomes Chasing History
All's Well that Ends Well
Ups and Downs
     
 
By the Odds
by Dennis Ranahan

If you have the Kansas City Chiefs on a future ticket to win Super Bowl LVIII, you can consider that wager a lost cause. The Chiefs narrow home setback to the Detroit Lions on Thursday night puts Andy Reid's team in a statistical nightmare. Of the 57 Super Bowl winners, only one lost at home on opening day and they had an excuse.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers opened their 2002 Super Bowl winning season with an overtime home loss to the New Orleans Saints. I say an excuse, because the Buccaneers had drilled the Saints on this same field the prior season in December, 48-21. Every other Super Bowl winner that opened at home, 23 of them, won their first game of the season.

Losing on the road is a bit more forgiving, nine eventual Super Bowl winners lost the opening game of their championship campaign on the road, compiling a record of 24-9. What this means in practical terms is that 16 teams have a chance to lose at home this week and create tremendous odds against them finishing the season while collecting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Chiefs loss last night signals that in all likelihood they will not be the first team to repeat as Super Bowl Champions since the New England Patriots won back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004. The Chiefs have been to the AFC Championship Game five straight years and advanced to three Super Bowls, winning two to complete the 2019 and 2022 seasons.

On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers host the San Francisco 49ers. If the favored Niners prevail, my Super Bowl pick of Mike Tomlin’s team is put on the same life support that the Chiefs created for themselves with last night’s narrow loss to the Lions, 21-20.

Another highly touted Super Bowl hopeful is the Cincinnati Bengals, they open in Cleveland against the Browns. Both these AFC North Division squads have legitimate hopes for ending the season with a date to get their fingers measured for a ring. The Bengals were on the doorstep of a second straight Super Bowl appearance last season before falling to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in a hard fought three point decision, 23-20.

If the Bengals were to down the Browns on their home field, a site where Cleveland has defeated their AFC North Division rivals five straight times and never lost to Cincinnati’s brilliant young quarterback, Joe Burrow, big things could be in the offing for Zac Taylor’s squad. It would also shed some serious shade over the Browns Super Bowl aspirations. Sunday in Pittsburgh, the Steelers could heighten their prospects with an upset win over the 49ers, but a loss leaves them with daunting odds against ending this season in the winning locker room.

Yet, on the other side, if either or both Cleveland and Pittsburgh win at home against the Bengals and 49ers respectfully, it would allow them to lay claim to the prospect of being a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Every week matters, but opening games tell so much about the real direction of every team in the league. We know this, of the 57 Super Bowl winners, 47 of them won their opening game of the season.

Like the Lions did.